


Coping mechanisms

by Flexor



Series: Remnant: To hell in a handbasket. [1]
Category: RWBY
Genre: SPOILERS RWBY Series 3 Ep 11
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-12
Updated: 2016-02-12
Packaged: 2018-05-19 23:36:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5984863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flexor/pseuds/Flexor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If you've managed to live on the Internet this long, watching RWBY on Youtube exclusively, without being spoilered for Season 3, Ep 11, well done. I will do nothing to break that record.</p><p>So, I'll join the <i>horde</i> of people who've seen fit to write about the sad events in that episode, and how our favourite team is doing coping with the aftermath.  James Ironwood visits, and has a little chat with the girl most affected.</p><p>How's that for vague?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Coping mechanisms

**Author's Note:**

> There's another story over there: http://archiveofourown.org/works/5970865 also called "Coping Mechanisms". That'll teach me to write quicker...
> 
> Now that we're among the spoiled: James Ironwood visits Yang in her dorm for a little encouragement. Maybe, if I'm inspired, and if the events in the finale don't rule it out, I'll expand this to the story of Yang's revalidation.

James Ironwood knocked on the door to the RWBY dorm. The last time he was here, there had been armed guards at the door, and he'd had to make a young girl's life miserable by throwing her out of the Vytal Tournament. That had been only a few days ago. Now, that very same girl had to cope with things much, much worse. Part of being a General in the Atlas army was that you never had to wait till people were ready. He opened the door and stepped in. Three pairs of eyes turned to him, burning. Miss Xiao Long was sitting on her bed. She didn't even show she'd heard him enter. One of the girls, named Blake Belladonna, stood up facing him.

"General," she said. Ice was on her voice.

"Miss Belladonna. I've come to visit your teammate."

"She's not seeing any visitors," said Miss Weiss Schnee, stepping up next to her. She was almost an exact smaller version of his aide, her older sister Winter. "Is this an official visit, General?"

"It's okay," said the blonde girl named Yang Xiao Long. Nobody listened.

"Not _very_ official," said Ironwood. "I heard about what happened, and I thought maybe I could offer her a little perspective, some comfort."

"Maybe, if you'd believed her earlier, then none of this would have happened," said Miss Schnee.

Ironwood severely doubted that. Their adversaries had played their hand well, and orchestrated a massive public outcry, followed by a combined attack of the White Fang and an enormous number of Grimm. There had been... other losses as well. Frankly, anyone still alive was lucky to be. But Miss Schnee was angry. Angry beyond what he'd done to her friend, and lashing out at anyone, anything. She was welcome to. His shoulders were broad enough.

"I wonder if I could have a few moments with Miss Xiao Long alone," said Ironwood.

"What for?" Miss Schnee stood in front of him, arms crossed, immovable.

"Her situation and mine are not dissimilar. I can share some of my experience with her."

" _Really_? After all this? I think..."

" _Weiss!_ "

Miss Xiao Long looked at Miss Schnee, a look in her eyes that combined annoyance and a numb sadness that Ironwood knew only too well. He had seen it in wounded soldiers. A thousand-mile stare interrupted only by loud noises. Miss Xiao Long returned to staring ahead of her.

"I think you'd better go," said Miss Schnee. "We have the situation well in hand." Her eyes grew suddenly large, and she turned to her friend. "Sorry! I'm so sorry! It just slipped out, I promise!"

Miss Xiao Long turned her head round, a shadow of a smile on her lips. "Don't make me come over and slap you."

Her voice sounded too dull for the joke to be really funny.

"Please, Ladies." Ironwood tried again. "May I?"

The last girl in the dorm, Miss Xiao Long's sister Ruby Rose, now stood up and walked up to him. Silvery grey eyes looked at him earnestly. She gave a little nod.

"Come on girls. It's time to change Blake's bandages. Let's go."

The girls walked to the door. Miss Belladonna walked close by him.

"Don't outstay your welcome," she said.

With a variety of filthy looks, three quarters of Team RWBY walked out of the door. 

 

Ironwood looked round for a chair to sit on, didn't see any, and sat down by Miss Xiao Long's feet on the bed. She was wearing a long-sleeved bluish white woollen jumper with the Schnee logo on the front. She had an arm round her knees, and was holding the end of the other sleeve in her hand, as if to hide that that sleeve was empty. She stared at her bare feet on the blanket.

"Miss Xiao Long?"

She looked up at him. Her eyes looked hollow, dull. She said nothing.

"How are you?"

She blinked slowly. A brief moment of resolve and a brave smile passed over her face.

"I've been racking my brain to remember what comes after five. I've never had to do that out of my head."

He laughed quietly. "Use your toes, you silly girl."

"Oh. Thanks."

They fell silent for a moment. He leaned against the wall, looked at her.

"I've been talking to people. I know what happened to you. You were very courageous to attack the leader of the White Fang all on your own."

"But stupid, am I right?"

Ironwood shook his head. "No. You defended your friend. I know for a fact that if you'd known how strong he was, still you would have attacked. You should be proud. You are alive, and Miss Belladonna is alive."

"Fat lot of good that'll do everybody. I'm useless now. How the hell am I going to punch anyone with only one arm?"

Ironwood gently touched Miss Xiao Long's leg with his left hand.

"Miss Xiao Long, this is not the end of you. We will fix you. In fact, you will come out of this a stronger fighter than you were before."

"Sure."

"Let me show you something."

He took off his coat, deliberately undoing the buttons with his right hand. Then, he pulled his shirt over his head. He dropped his clothes on the bed.

Miss Xiao Long stared at him. Ironwood's right arm was made of a grey metal. The right side of his chest was made of metal, all the way down to his belt. He pulled off his glove, and showed her his metal hand, moving his fingers.

"This is my iron. If you don't mind, I'll keep my pants on, but both my legs are cybernetic replacements. Two nights ago, I fought a Griffin. I blocked a swipe of its front paw that would have cut me in half before, and threw the beast onto its back. Don't be afraid, Miss Xiao Long. In a few weeks, you will be training again."

"What..." Miss Xiao Long coughed. "What's it like?"

"I almost can't remember what my body felt like before. This is what, _who_ I am now. I have changed. Some things are better. Some things have simply stopped. Some things, I still miss. But I am ten times the warrior I was."

"I can't afford that kind of hardware," said Yang.

"The Academy can," said Ironwood. "They know exactly what dangers Hunters may be facing, and they are insured. You'll be able to choose." He looked at Miss Xiao Long's right sleeve. "How much do you have left?"

She hesitated a moment, then pulled her sleeve tight over her stump. Ironwood nodded.

"You still have most of your bicep. Good. They'll use that to drive the servo in your elbow. The rest will be neural interfaces. Don't be afraid, Miss Xiao Long. It doesn't take long to learn how to use it. In fact, _it_ will learn how _you_ want to use it."

Ironwood picked up his coat and reached into the pocket, pulling out a smooth round rock he'd picked up outside. He rolled it between the metal fingers of his right hand, threw it in the air, and caught it.

"I was a colonel in the Atlas army. We were fighting against the Faunus armies, and we'd severely underestimated them. They had somehow found heavy mortars and they knew how to use them. A shell went off almost on top of me. I lost both my legs that day. My arm was later. And just before I passed out, I saw... really _saw_ my wife on the battlefield, searching for me. In reality, she was nowhere near the place."

"You have a wife?"

Ironwood only gave a small shake of his head. "I know what happened to you in the arena. I know you were _made_ to believe you were acting in self defence. It was an injustice to disqualify you."

Miss Xiao Long gave him a long look. "Great. Does that mean I've got my space in the tournament back? With Pyrrha and Penny out, I can beat the rest with one hand tied behind my back."

Ironwood's eyes gleamed. Sarcasm. A good sign. "Once you're back in operation, you have my permission to go up there and fight anyone who'll dare face you. But your new hardware will give you an entirely unfair advantage."

A small but important change had come over Miss Xiao Long. She was looking at his hand, still playing with the rock. Looking, not just staring because her eyes had to point somewhere. Good.

"My iron is military spec. They'll fix _you_ up with a nice civilian grade prosthetic. Don't worry. The difference is not in the strength. You'll still be able to punch through walls. You'll still be able to do this."

Ironwood closed his hand on the rock. After a moment, there was a sharp crack and the rock shattered into pieces. Miss Xiao Long blinked.

"Whoa. I'm gonna have to be careful when I shake someone's hand."

Ironwood laughed. "They're not idiots. There's a cap on your grip strength unless you take it off."

"So why can't I get a military grade arm? An Army arm?"

"You don't need it," said Ironwood. "The only thing you can't do is this."

He touched a specific spot on his arm, and with a click it came loose.

"Do you want to see something fun?"

Ironwood tossed his arm into a corner of the room. He whistled. As Miss Xiao Long watched with wide eyes, the arm came clawing back to Ironwood until he picked it up and clicked it back in place. There _was_ a rather far-fetched set of circumstances where this would be useful, but he mainly thought of it as a party trick. Perhaps he should try to get into better parties.

"Mil-spec iron is designed to be easily replaceable in case it gets damaged. In a pinch, you can even use someone else's. Lend a hand, if you will."

"Hey! Bad puns are _my_ department."

"I'm a General," said Ironwood. "All departments are my department. But civilian iron looks much more realistic. Mil-spec doesn't have the skin options a civilian grade prosthetic has."

"Skin options?"

"Realistic skin tones. Except it doesn't tan. So if you're at the beach, your arm will look pale." Ironwood sneered, shook his head. "Don't go for skin. Skin _almost_ looks like a real arm. And it still doesn't _feel_ like a real arm, so people get a shock when you touch them. Go for bare metal. Metal looks like a gauntlet. That's better, trust me. Also, don't let them tempt you into putting in gadgets. Bottle openers. Corkscrews. Espresso makers. Even, Gods protect us, firearms. Explosives _inside_ your body are a FUBAR waiting to happen. The more moving parts, the less robust. On the other hand..." They looked into each other's eyes, sharing the joke. "Do go for every firmware option you can get. Especially writing. You can transfer text from your scroll to paper without even looking. Blade capture. When something sharp touches your palm, your hand snaps shut. Sound useful?"

"You said beach. You mean I can _swim_ with it?"

"You can, I can't. Too heavy. I can walk along the bottom. Civ-grade is filled with foam. It nearly floats. And it's waterproof, so don't worry about that."

Miss Xiao Long looked out of the window for a while. The weather was bright. The terror from the skies had been defeated, but there should be dark clouds. There should be rain.

"I don't want to swim. I want to hug my little sister. My friends. I want to touch their hair."

"It'll do that," said Ironwood. "It won't feel the same, but it'll work."

"And I want to ride my bike again."

"I understand."

"And I want to strangle Adam Taurus."

"I can see why you might," said Ironwood.

"Oh, not because of this." Miss Xiao Long pointed at her empty sleeve. "I attacked him. He attacked me. He was better than I was. Fair enough." Her eyes darkened. "But he hurt _Blake_. He hurt my _friends_ , bringing Grimm into my home. I'll kill him for that."

Nothing changed on Ironwood's face, but inwardly, he was smiling. Miss Xiao Long wasn't out of the woods yet. But at least she was looking in the right direction. He picked up his shirt and pulled it back on.

"Well, Miss Xiao Long, I hope I've given you something to look forward to. If the Gods will it, you'll be combat ready in a month or two. And then, you'll hunt again."

Miss Xiao Long looked up at Ironwood as he pulled his coat on. She really did look better. He gave her a smile.

"One thing," she said.

"Yes?"

"Is it really that much better, with all those new powers?"

Ironwood reached out, put his left hand on her good shoulder.

"We've come a long way since the hooks for hands and the timber legs. I can fight stronger foes now than I could when I still had my own arm and legs." He gave her a little squeeze. "But it's still second best. I wish you a speedy recovery, Miss Xiao Long."

She smiled back at him.

"Please General. Call me Yang."

"Call me James, Yang. And keep in touch. I want to beat you at arm wrestling when you have your new iron."

"Heh. You and what army?"

Ironwood laughed, waved, and walked out of the door. 


End file.
